John Gale… Hard to believe that existed when you see the size of the gap left there after the fire
Alan Esdaile… used to be packed in like sardines!
John Gale… so I hear, just a bit before my time
Jon McCallion… It’s where it all started Alan as you would remember, I remember Fiona she invited me for the band.
Linda McGregor… It was nothing like a discotheque when I used to go ’76-’79
original photographer: unknown. supplied by Lloyd Johnson
Lloyd Johnson… High Street Hastings Old Town….in the 20s/30s….
Marcus de Mowbray… It looks like if the road had been flat the buses would not have been able to pass each other without damaging their bodywork!
Stuart Moir… Enough room for buses to pass each other but I think it was a bit too close for comfort
Peter Houghton… When I lived in Bexhill the Buses used to Drive up from Sidley to the old Town and that is a very narrow road
Stewart Randell… Remember when the No11 & 2 Trolley Buses used to pass in the same spot 1950s
Ray Barry… Remember it well,a Merrydown cider and bottle Brown Ale 2/10d. Circa 1963/4
Patricia Burgess… Ray, OMG haven’t heard the name Merrydown for at least 45 years loved that cider. Is it still made.
Ray Barry… Patricia, No the brewery closed some few years ago and is now a housing estate in Horam
Tony Court-holmes… Ray, my mum june used to drink that in The Anchor back in the 60s
Paul Reed… Is that street still there today or did it disappear if thats st Clements church in photo.Did I hear that area suffered bomb damage as well.?
Lynda Whatley… yes that is St Clements Church and the area was suffered bomb damage – and the church suffered too . My mother and myself posed for the local artist – when the church window over the alter was commissioned .
Ray Barry… The street is still there but the pub has long gone and is now a house. A pub round the corner called The Swan got bombed during the Second World War.
Graham Mccallion… I remember those days
John Wilde… I lived in Hill street during the late 70s and it was long gone
Jacqueline Marsh… I went to school just behind this pub
Monica Bane… My Wedding breakfast there In 1960!
Tony Court-holmes… drank in that pub
Tony Collins… Whether true or not but I did hear that at one side of the top window of the Church is a cannonball fired from an enemy ship and the other one is made or stone to balance it up. If you look carefully one is rusted and the other is grey. Can anyone confirm this?
Roger Simmonds… Tony, Yes there is a cannon ball in the wall!
Roger Simmonds… I also used to drink in there in 1964!
Janet Mournard Russell… Used to go there often.
Mick Barrow… The Kicking Donkey kicked the hole in the wall, i think Ron French was the landlord
Sid Saunders… So that’s where I left my bike!
Monica Bane… As a Young girl, Use to ask Guys for drawing paper. My, brings back memories!
Claire Lonsdale… I can’t place where in the High St that is
David Edwards… Claire, by the entrance to Sinnock Square, building by Post Office demolished for Philip Cole flats
Ian Johnson… Bought a lot of reggae from the Disc Jockey back in the day
Jackie Hersee… And my old house – 86 High Street
Mick O’Dowd… I worked for W.A. Guy when it became Guy & Jones and they had moved to Sinnock Passage.
Stuart Moir… You won’t it’s such an old photo, even the trolly bus wires show that it’s two way traffic and that bike, well it looks like it belonged to someones great grandad
supplied by Jim Breeds
John Gale… My dad purchased his first drum kit from The Disc Jockey, in 1956ish seen here…
photo supplied by John Gale
photo supplied by Leigh Kennedy
Monica Bane… Used to sit up above the shop after Jazz at the caves, listening to music all of us!
Alan Esdaile… I can smell Disque Bleu by just looking at the photo! Well I think that’s what I can smell?
Martyn Baker… Owned by Guy?
Peter Thomson… Is that a cheese?
Patricia Wapshott… I remember that place but can’t remember who ran it , think he was called Guy and his flat above was so cool , he had a sunken bed and a vast record collection , my friend Camille was seeing him and that’s how I got to see the flat . We sat and listened to David Bowie albums while he smoked a joint and I must have been about 15 then and didn’t even know what a joint was ! I just remember that it smelt disgusting and politely said no when he offered it to me that was also smelt incense sticks burning . The innocence of my youth !
Gin Genie… Guy still drinks in the Nelson on a Monday night playing shove
Will Hadfield… I think this is where people hung out in a disco downstairs owned by a bloke called guy or max
Pete Brazier… Didn’t it become the cheese emporium? Probably the Swiss blue what you thought you could smell lol
Chris Baker… Played downstairs a few times. Usually with our electrics swimming in the mix of beer and “toilet water” and getting shocks off the Mike’s and my guitar! Health & Safety? What’s that?
Jim Hobbs…. How about old beer and cigarettes.
Angela Frances Gardner… When Chico had the Jamaican restaurant on the ground floor selling ackee and salt fish
Martin Richter… disque bleu ? you crazy beatniks
Andy Qunta… Fond memories of this place!
John McCallion… I remember it well Alan, .It’s where I auditioned with Steve D, Paul Dove and Paul Wiseman to form Muller
John Busbridge… Disco was downstairs, used to go there!
Jemma Yasmin… What a lovely building I never knew what was here it’s been a building site as long as I can remember …. do you know when and why it burnt down? With the downstairs of Fagins and this what an amazing place the old town would have been at this time?
Rebecca Marshall is organising this fundraiser.
Allan Mitchell… Totally agree!!!
Marcus de Mowbray… Great little cinema!
Heather Sidery… Most definitely!
photo © Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland
Phil Gill… Class outfitters
Martin Richter… all the army boots you could eat
Glenn Piper… veritable Aladdins cave of curiosity’s and lots of boots & great coats
Lucy Pappas… Bought my very wide leg sailor trousers from there! Loved Malcolm Mitchell x
Phil Gill… Lucy, You could have washed them before you turned up at the youth club wearing them though.
Lucy Pappas… Phil, I apologise for the fishy smell. Thinking about it, that would have been when we first become friends, 50+ years ago….
Phil Gill… I didn’t mind fishy, it was the beer stains from some Norwegian sailor’s night out.
Bruce Zebedee… Great shop
Colin Wells… Malcs bootique!!
Pete Blomfield… Datsun 100a or 120y?
Jeff McCall… Great shop, bought a purple parker from there, it had a bullet hole in it!
Gerry Fortsch… I remember that they sold every thing so one day I asked for a torpedo and they came up with one.
Fred Marsh… I wonder what some of our dfls would have made of it
Lloyd Johnson… Fred, Hastings is my home town.I moved to London in 1966 I went Ore youth Club with Patrick Mitchell who’s uncle owned MM .I opened my own shop/stall in 1967 in Kensington market a year later.In 1973 I was buying similar items that we’re sold in Malcolm Mitchell’s the High st,Baldocks and Winters shoe shop in George st.,Cyril Savages in Kings Road and Apps shoe shop in Silverhill by that time the stock I remembered from the early 60s was considered vintage clothing. I remember. buying an amazing W11 leather dispatch riders jacket from MM which I wore during my Art school days at The Brassey Institute above the Library in 1961/62…I guess you could say in some ways all those shops including MM were a great inspiration for me during my time. in the clothing business as was the whole teenage experience of growing up in Hastings with The Pamdor, Fiesta ,the trad jazz at the caves and the groups on The Pier. I think it is nice to see some new small innovative businesses bring some style to the town. The DFLs’ as you seem to call the creatives from London that have chosen Hastings to make their home. Several friends from London have moved to Hastings and St.Leonard’s and I think they contribute extra style and entertainment to the Town…..
Mark Syrett… Top shop
Mike Waghorne… Top clothe’s shop in the late 60’s Malcom’s boutique we used to call it !
John Mcewen… Best work boots ever!
Dave Nattress… Even us Bexhill boys knew Malcolm’s Boutique, always on the tourist may with the Trading Post
Jim Breeds… April 2021 view (Google Streetview)
Alan Esdaile… Jim, hasn’t got the same smell as the original photo!
supplied by Leigh Kennedy
1968 Advert
Angela Frances Gardner… It was a great place to go after the pubs shut and eating the wonderful Jamaican food at Chico’s on street level before going to the Hifi club. I remember that Lou Reeds song Goodnight Ladies was always played at closing time
Jackie Hersee… I went there
Simon Fraser… I went there. If you breathed you were stone
Ian Watling… It was a great place to hang out, can’t recall many nights but that’s probably because I was having such a great time
John Busbridge… Downstairs from what I remember, I used to go there must have been late sixties or early seventies?
Diane Knight… John, got to be 70’s …I was definitely there !!!
Andy Qunta… Went there many times. I think it was there that I saw Paul Kossoff from Free and John Martyn one night!
Andrew Bantock… I’ve only been here for 32 years so I don’t know why there is a hole where the HiFi used to be.
Jon McCallion… Because they can’t replace it
Colin Bell… It burnt down in ‘mysterious circumstances’…
Jo Turner… Yup
Peter Fairless… Only went there a couple of times at most, very vague memories!
Judy Atkinson… My brother used to go there a lot, Roger Fullbrook, known as Jack, anyone remember him?
Lucy Pappas… I went a few times but it was my sister Dina’s favourite place.
Colin Bell… Many times, me & Caz could tell a few stories….
Nick Webb… Many a night spent there, and if you got to go upstairs you where well in .
Alan Esdaile… Great music, great times. We used to sit in the alcove seat at the bottom of the stairs smoking Disque Bleu and drinking what we could afford. Probably only 14 when I first went there!
Steve Burt… Yep went there wild place.
Lloyd Johnson… i went there in the 60s and helped paint the front of ‘Talkies’ cafe almost next door….Sid ran the cafe!…
Simon Fraser… Never remembered how I got home from there. 1970is
Sue Colebrook-Gentry… I worked there behind the bar from 1967 — 1972 and lived upstairs. Many happy memories. Me and the DJ Jack and a couple of regulars behind the reception upstairs.
Willie Wicking… Went there a few times with older friends but was there the night it burnt down can remember it well was in Wellington Sqaure & after the 5th fire engine went past went to have a look that was a real fire fire brigade had a difficult job must have been around 77 79 can also remember all the hoses across road into boating lake
Diane Knight… Loved the Hi fi …I used to go there with the Alderson crew ( all relocated in oz) ..such great times
Chris Meachen… Had some great nights in there, fabulous place.. Pretty sure it burned down on September 27th in whatever year…
Bernard Goffredo… that was a regular haunt
Lloyd Johnson… I remember Guy and his mate on a silver Vespa GS very early on when they first came down to Hastings during The ‘Mod days’…his mate had an accident and lost a leg, does anyone else remember his friend. He went out with Lis Parrish for a while..I remember Guy talking to Les Martin , who helped run The Pamdor about buying the Hi- Fi from Alain the Frenchman that owned it….that must have been very early on…
Colin Doherty… DJ’d there and lived upstairs for a few very enjoyable years!
Tony Court-holmes… had my 21st birthday party in there, my god that was a long time ago